Towel
by PolarBear1200
Summary: SSHG. Snape finds Hermione passed out. Wearing nothing but a towel. Not a oneshot anymore. Due to popular demand.
1. Chapter 1

A/n: There is a very little chance of this being more than a oneshot. I'm in the middle of my story 'Possession' now, and this is just a quick little one shot.

But you never know.. I might give it another chapter one day.

But just a warning, this could be frustrating because it has no 'closure'.

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With every breath she took, with her chest rising, it shifted the knot in the towel open.

It was sliding open.

Severus couldn't look away.

He'd walked into Hermione's rooms after knocking insistently for 10 minutes, worried for her safety.. Or, 'to make sure the stupid bint hadn't hit her head and passed out and he'd have to teach her class for the next week' – as he rationalised it..

He was greeted with the site of Hermione, on the sofa, in nothing but a towel. He was momentarily stopped in his tracks, and his eyes travelled down the split in the doubled over towel where he could see her thigh.

He cringed at the perverted voyeurism of it all, and reached over to shake her, wake her up.

But she didn't wake.

He checked her pulse, she was breathing, she was alive. So why wasn't she awake?

He leant down to her face to call her name, and caught the strong smell of firewhiskey on her breath out.

Ah. So she'd been drinking and had passed out in nothing but a towel. Great.

This close to her face, he took the time to observe her. Her lips, open, pouted.. Her nose was red, and her eyes were puffy. Had she been crying?

He stood back to think, that's when he noticed the towel moving.

It shifted about half a centimetre with every breath in.

He whimpered to himself as he saw the towel unlock from its tucked position above her left breast.

He saw the towel slide over her smooth skin, and felt a pang of jealousy. He wished HE was running his hands over those beautiful breasts, across her stomach.

He reached out to do so, but stopped himself.

He growled loudly and took his jacket off and threw it on her.

Stupid tempting bitch.

He stalked to the door, opened it, stepped through and slammed it shut.


	2. Chapter 2

A/n: FINE! Sheeeesh. Lol.

Here's another stinkin' chapter then.

Go read my other stories, dangit.

--

She pulled the jacket around herself tighter as she came out of her slumber.

'God, whoever that is smells soooo good..' She thought. Opening her eyes and looking around, she realised she was naked, with a towel under her, and a jacket ontop of her.

Whose jacket?

It was a school robe/jumper/jacket. So it was a teacher. Who knew the passwords to her rooms?

She sat up and her head swooned as she felt the effects of her hangover grip it's fingernails in to her brain.

Stumbling, she threw the jacket on, which was much too big for her, and went to the cupboard to search for hangover relief.

She was out.

Too many nights she'd drunk herself into unconsciousness.

Too many mornings she'd downed a hangover relief potion.

Oh. What was today? Saturday? Thank god.

Fresh tears welled up in her eyes when she remembered why she drunk away the pain every night. She sat on the sofa and cried, a mixture of the pain of being hungover and the pain that haunted her head every day causing her to sob into the jacket.

She will have to go to Snape for pain relief.

Snape?

She looked at the jacket. He knew the passwords to her rooms. It was the right size.

She smelt it again and she realised that it was, in fact, Snape's jacket.

So he had been here. When she was naked? And he hadn't molested her?

Or, had he?

She had too many questions, and Snape could answer a bunch of them. Whiping her eyes and steeling herself, she threw on some clothes and headed towards Snape's room to return the coat, get some potion, and some answers!

--

a/n: Yeah I'm continuing. Dangit.


	3. Chapter 3

As Hermione made her way to Snape's room, she had a bit of time to think.

Because her head was pounding, she walked with her eyes half closed, feeling her way across the walls.

As she neared the dungeons, the cool air and darkness soothed her eyes and she opened them.

If she was honest with herself, she maybe sort of hoped that Snape HAD molested her. Disappointing that she was asleep during it.

Asleep. Passed out.

She wondered if perhaps passing out nearly every night gave her brain damage.

She hoped not.

But, brain damage she could take. The screaming nightmares in which she would reach for Ron's blood soaked hand and it would slip out of hers as he was dragged away. As she was dragged away in the other direction to be raped to near death by the Death eaters.

He saved her.

That stupid Snape saved her.

She growled in the darkness.

It was his fault she couldn't sleep, couldn't close her eyes. Couldn't pause a moment without crying, because the pain was so near to the surface.

She hadn't slept properly in weeks.

Day after day she'd wake up where she'd passed out. Sometimes in the bath, filled with freezing cold water that had cooled over the night. Sometimes in the SHOWER, where she'd had the water running on her face the whole night.

Last night she'd made it out of the shower.

She often went to the shower to cry. She supposed it went back to when she was younger, when she wanted to cry… She'd tell her parents she was off to have a shower, and sit on the ground and cry and cry. The water would wash away the tears, wash away the swollen eyes and lips. No one would even know.

She frowned and shook her head as she felt the tears prickle her eyes again.

No. No more crying. Wait until after you've given Snape his stupid jacket. And kicked him in the shins too. Bastard.

She knocked on the door and waited, unconsciously bringing the robe up to smell.


	4. Chapter 4

A/n: This has turned pretty dang angsty right here. Wow. Really angsty. Seriously. I cried when I wrote this. But ok. I'm working with my Snape muse, and he says that he wants it angsty. And whatever Snapey wants, Snapey gets.

---

Snape opened the door to see Granger standing there, looking angry, looking tired, looking fed up.. looking beautiful.. and holding his robe.

Frowning at her, he moved to the side and motioned for her to come in.

"No, here, just take your robe." She threw it at him. "Do you mind if I have some hangover relief potion?" She added, rubbing her forehead.

"No. You can't." He went to close the door.

"What? No way, you have to give me that potion. My head feels like it's burning from the inside out!" She stepped through the door and walked past him towards his cupboards.

"Drinking doesn't take away the pain, Hermione." Snape said, walking to the other side of the room and sitting down.

"I know drinking doesn't take away the pain, HANGOVER relief takes away the pain. Where the hell is it?" She pushed a few vials to the side and one fell, smashing on the ground.

He rolled his eyes as the potion spread out all over the floor and burnt into the concrete.

"Argh. What was that?" She looked down, and saw as it burnt through the leg of her pants.

"That's just a potion that burns everything except human skin.. But you won't find the handover relief potion in there." Snape watched her, slightly amused, as she growled and stalked to the next cupboard over, which was actually where he kept all his spare empty books and quills.

When she saw this, she turned and looked at Snape.

"What do you want? I'll do whatever you want for the potion." She hissed.

"Anything?" He smiled lecherously.

"Don't Snape. Just don't. Give me the potion, or I'm going to Minerva and telling her you're refusing me medical care when I need it." She put her hands on her hips and gave him her very best I'm-not-bluffing look.

He sighed, stood and walked over to her, pulling a vial out of his pocket and handing it to her.

She took it and downed it in one go, making a disgusted face as the taste filled her mouth.

She moved to leave, but Snape stood in front of her.

She glared at him, took a step to the other side, but he followed.

She was trapped in a corner.

That made her nervous.

"What are you doing, Snape?" She whispered, and cringed at the fear that crept into her voice.

He noticed, and stepped back, but still kept her in the corner.

"I suppose I'm the last person to talk to. But.. I do know how hard certain things are. And I am much older than you, and I know that drinking all night and passing out to escape the dreams is not the right way to do it." He whispered.

She felt the tears coming back again. She had to get out.

She made a move for the door, but he stopped her.

"The dreams come when you sleep anyway. That's why you wake up with bruises all over your arms," he pushed her sleeves up to show her, "You thrash around in your sleep, hitting everything, anything.. It's not the right thing to do, you're hurting yourself.." He tried to pour his concern into what he was saying, but she just stared off into the distance.

"I blame you." She finally said.

"What?" He let go of her arm.

"If you hadn't saved me. I'd be dead. I'd be with Ron. I'd be with my parents. Hey, if we knew where Harry was, maybe he's dead too and I'd be with him. But no. I'm stuck here with YOU. YOU are the only person in the world that I have now. And I hate you." She burst into tears.

"I hate you so much that I want to come in here and crawl into bed with you and cry. I want you to hold me like Harry or Ron would have. I want to feel like I don't have to sleep with my back to a wall, or with the lights on, because the dreams are so vivid that when I wake up, I can still see them.

"I blame you for being alive. I blame you for this pain that never stops!" She screamed the last part at him and pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes.

"Oh god. Stop crying. Stop crying you ungrateful fool.." She chanted to herself.

Snape watched her as she screamed, as she blamed him for her pain.

He knew she hated to be alive. But in truth, she was all HE had now. All his death eater 'friends' were dead. Albus was gone. Remus was gone. Minerva was still alive, but acting headmistress took so much time away, she was hardly even there.

He slowly put his hand on her shoulder and with his fingertips, nudged her towards him. She stumbled towards him and he pulled her into his arms. Wrapping himself around her, they sat on the floor as she sobbed into his shoulder.


	5. Chapter 5

Having a sleeping Hermione Granger in his lap wasn't as uncomfortable as he had originally thought.

Not that he'd ever thought about it.

But really, she was so tiny compared to him, he felt the overwhelming need to look after her, wrap his arms around her and keep her safe from anyone. Even herself. Even HIMself.

He looked down into her puffy, red nosed face. Just as he had when he found her passed out in her rooms. She let out little hiccups every once in a while and frowned.. He looked at the clock and saw it was 3 in the afternoon. They'd been sitting there for 4 hours, the first hour filled with her crying, stopping to try to hit him every once in a while, trying to stand up and falling back onto him.. Then she relaxed and slept for the last 3 hours.

His back panged with another shot of pain. His arse hurt from the concrete. It was time to stand up.

He shook her a little to try to wake her up. Hermione made a whimpering noise and wrapped her arms around his neck tighter.

Sighing, he put one arm under her knees and the other at her lower back and accio'd his wand, walking towards the bed.

He laid her down softly onto the bed and rubbed his sore back.

It was only then he realised he could have accio'ed his wand and made a cushioning charm. He rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.

He turned to walk towards the big chair in the corner, when Hermione let out a short, sharp scream and sat up looking around wildly.

He walked quickly to the bed and sat next to her, feeling the heat emitting from her body and he swore her heartbeat was so loud he could hear it. She looked up into his eyes and frowned. Pulling him towards her, she laid down and snuggled into his chest, throwing a leg over him and burying her face at the base of his neck.

He lay still and stiff for a few minutes, obviously uncomfortable. She sighed contentedly and reached for his hand, placing it behind her. He relaxed then and pulled her towards him, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

A few hours later, after Hermione had slept more and Severus had memorised the wall behind her completely, she awoke, stretching and pushing her body harder into his.

He growled at her and she smiled. She knew she had a decent amount of sex appeal. Where she missed out on being sexy in school, once she was out, had her education, had a job, she'd decided to make herself beautiful. Or, bring out as much inner beauty as she could find.

She told herself it was for confidence, but in a way it was to attract a husband. She'd lost so many people, all she wanted was that person to protect her from everything. She never wanted that pain again, and she figured finding a man to look after her was the way to go.

But Hermione was so headstrong, so bossy, so angry, so moody.. keeping a man with her for more than a few weeks was an impossible task.

Even Severus had heard the screaming fights from down the hallway and watched as yet another man stormed past him, muttering about how insufferable she is.

She was so lonely. She -was- so lonely. Right -now- she felt pretty damn content.

"Thank you for saving me, Severus." She whispered, almost too quietly for him to hear.

"I'm glad I did." He replied.

Then they both fell asleep.


End file.
